Customer Reviews

She

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Prime Cuts: Fallen Angels, Home, Faithless Love

Wendy Matthews is Australia's best kept secret. With seven ARIAs, 7 top selling albums and legions of fans, Matthews has rightfully earned a place among Australia's titular divas. However, with the recent bias of the sonic landscape for tuneless melodies from younger wannabes, Matthews has been gravelly sidelined from the airwaves. Deciding to take things into her own hands, she has founded her own label Barking Bear Records, and "She" is the byproduct. Unlike her previous efforts, "She" brings Matthews to her roots. This former ARIA winner has decided to record 12 cover songs from female artists that have been formative through her lustrous career. With the winsome combination of her patented nasal alto and a boatload of open-hearted affection, Matthew brings her personality to bear on the material which is sensitively performed in an understated and almost stripped down arrangement.

Maybe because these 12 tracks were written by or/and for women, there's an inherent sensitivity and depth to many of these chosen tracks. Who could capture the feelings of homesickness better than Karla Bonoff on her signature ballad "Home" when she lucidly details the feelings of a traveler on a train? And Matthew's performance here doesn't disappoint: she takes her leisure to move through each vignettes of the train ride as if they were just happening before us. This is art; this is reality. While many a lesser artist would not be comfortable to tackle Joni Mtchell's "Cherokee Louise," Matthew's version is fervid and daring bringing a fresh spin to this sad tale of child abuse. On the title track "She," a song sometimes associated with Emmylou Harris, is embellished with a Southern Gospel charm as Matthews tells of the strength of a woman that is in no sense threatening.

While Matthews has been a household name in Australia, many often forget that she was actually born in Montreal, Canada. She shows her Canadian roots by revisiting Buffy St. Marie's extremely catchy "Fallen Angels" where Matthews gives this classic an irresistible touch of sass. Linda Ronstadt's "Faithless Love" must be one of pop music's most realistic depictions of love gone wrong; and Matthew's plaintive offering is just drop dead gorgeous. Another nod to Ronstadt is Matthew's cover of "Silverblue" (which incidentally is also written by J. D. Souther), here only backed by a piano this is Matthews at her balladry best calling to mnd her own big hit "The Day You Went Away."

Never restricting herself to a single genre, Matthews does kick up her heels on some 70s sounding R&B with Aretha Franklin's "Till You Come Back to Me." While love doesn't get sweeter than Jane Silberry's "Life is a Red Wagon." Unlike many covers album, Matthews doesn't go for the aged-in-oak songs. Her choice of songs here is nimble and inventive. Who would have thought that the songs of such diverse artists such as Emmylou Harris, Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt, and Joni Mitchell could co-exist on one CD? Yet, Matthews doesn't just sings; she re-interprets them making each paean her very own.